Music

I am a music person. In the car, I listen to music - even if it means changing the channel 43 times on a 6 mile drive to avoid having to hear a commercial. But the other day I was driving the "wrong" car, and the presets weren't mine, and I was growing tired of pressing the seek button incessantly and just settled on some voice.

She was talking about relationships. And egos. And how even the most timid of us still have egos - like it or not. And how in any relationship, when there is a point of friction or disagreement, you have 2 choices.

You can either choose to be right

or

you can choose to do what's right for the benefit of the relationship.

That got me thinking. Sometimes we know we're right. I mean really right. We might be taken for granted, or taken advantage of, or under valued, or over worked, or ignored, or on and on.... And we even might be right. Pick a scenario and yes, it might be very accurate. We could rail on about the injustice, throw fits over the way we're treated, yell, pout, punish, whatever. Did it help? Are things different? Are things better? Will it bring a positive change? Sometimes the answer is YES. Sometimes we just gave reason to change the channel.

Or, we could do whatever it might take to benefit the relationship. Sometimes that means standing up for ourselves or sharing hurt feelings or stating needs or restating the rules. Sometimes that means setting the example of how we would like to be treated. Sometimes it means just accepting that not everyone is on their best behavior every minute of every day and sometimes the people we love the most unfortunately get to witness the worst in us. And some people, honestly, just don't know any better.

If every decision, every reaction, was measured based on how it would benefit whatever relationship we are currently experiencing -  imagine the impact it would have. Whether we're talking about a fellow co worker, friend, student, teacher, roommate, parent, child, sibling, loved one - if we respond to benefit each relationship we find ourselves in, think how fulfilled and healthy those relationships would become.

Music. That's what I want - in the car and in my relationships.